Getting Started & Ariel's Top 6 Facebook Apps For Musicians
Ariel Hyatt founded Ariel Publicity 12 years ago as a traditional Music PR firm. The company went 100% digital to accommodate the swiftly changing media landscape in January of 2007 and since then she has not looked back. Cyber PR is currently handling campaigns for over 95 artists. For this week's Industry Notes, Ariel outlines for ASCAP Members her picks for the top 6 Facebook applications that musicians should know.
I know a lot of artists who are already overwhelmed with MySpace tend to feel daunted by the whole concept of introducing yet another social network into their lives, but you won't believe how many people who you never saw around MySpace are on Facebook. All of a sudden you will be back in touch with your babysitter from grade school, a ton old friends, and even the drummer from your first band. With over 110 million active users it's here to stay so my advice is DIVE in (if you haven't already).
Here is a quick rundown for newbies on how to create a page as a band / musician and my favorite apps for Musicians when amping up your Facebook profile!
FACEBOOK FOR NEWBIES - HOW TO SET UP A PROFILE
STEP ONE: Create a Band / Artist Profile
Go here:
STEP TWO: click on the third button down, it will say:
Artist, Band, or Public Figure
STEP THREE: Select Band or Musician
After you select it, a pull down menu will pop up. Select band it if you are a band, or musician if you play solo or want to create a solo-page (you can create as many as you want so you can create one for you and one for your band).
STEP FOUR: Enter Your Name
Name your page and select create page. You are now off to the races!
The rest is pretty self-explanatory - you will upload your photo for your main user icon, your bio, band members and photos and details.
STEP FIVE: Click Create Page
Now you are live and ready to add Apps!
What is an App?
It's short for application and it is simply a cool additional tool that you can add to your page so that you can display features such as music, photos, and videos.
Facebook has a great page that explains how to help you with apps. FAQ's are here:
Here are my top picks for musicians and links to where you can download the apps for your own profile.
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Music By Reverb Nation
Play Your Tunes
Musicians and bands can post unlimited songs for streaming or download, add bios and band photos, sell your music and have your friends add your music and share with their friends (viral marketing for you!). This app also includes links to your homepage and you can add up to 30 of your songs (full-length) to your Facebook Musician Page. And the best part: great stats track song-play activity.
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Vod:Pod
Display Your Videos
I am a big advocate in creating small casual videos to share with your fans. Videos are an excellent viral marketing tool. This app is the easiest way to show your videos and your favorite videos. This is a good place to display backstage moments, live shows and of course your music videos
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zuPort
Show your Flickr photos
If you are a Flickr user zuPort automatically imports your public Flickr photostream so you can show off even more photos to your friends. zuPort: Flickr keeps your sets, collections, tags, comments and everything else linked so you only have to update only once.
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Twitter
Tweet Away and Have It Synched!
This app allows you to update your status on Facebook straight from your mobile phone�So you can be on the road but your facebook page can be updated from your van! Pretty cool eh?
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Facebook Mobile
Bring Facebook on the go
This app allows you to use Facebook on the go. With it, you can quickly to upload photos and notes from your camera phone straight to Facebook. You can also receive and reply to Facebook messages, pokes and Wall posts using text messages, or use your phone's mobile browser.
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iCast By iLike
Tell your fans your news
Send bulletins to fans with iCast, the best bulletins system on Facebook. You can send multimedia or mobile bulletins, or just plain blogs. Your bulletins will show not only to Facebook fans, but also via iLike across 10 different networks. They are the go to app for communicating your music to your fans.
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iLike this Artist
Show off to your fans
Musicians, you can show off your fans on iLike on your artist page. This will add an "iLike this artist" button on your page, and will show your (larger) fan count across the entire iLike network.
Happy facebooking and please find me and join our group which features loads of free tips for musicians
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